We had as much rain in 24 hours as we normally get in a month and across the Ottawa river on the Quebec side they have called in the army to help. The rain has come down softly at times, filtered with sunlight, the rain has come down steady with grey sky’s and its come down in sheets so thick, that you can’t see what is in front of you.

We have dripping gear and coats hung up to dry, we have mud everywhere.. thick clinging mud, pulling and sucking at our strength in so many ways, reminding us that we must look down if you want to have a chance at your footing, and the slog to do chores is real and taking 3 to 5 times longer do to the fact that everything takes longer to move, haul and shift.

To say that I am grateful that my new roof is on would be a very fair statement, yes I know that there is still the ridge cap needed after this photo but that was done etc. I just didn’t get a photo of it.. so we got the tin on the porch and the work all done on the roof and a very good thing it was finished before this storm system arrived.

On my drive yesterday, I was so surprised to see so many places that had landslides in the farmers fields, anywhere that there is hilly, there are numbers of places where tree’s and whole sections of land just let go due to the amount of water moving under it.

One less yearling ewes in our flock as of today, I plan to butcher out five more over the next two weeks..

That’s what I got today folks.. one foot in front of the other.. one moment to the next.. tomorrow is new day!

If I wanted to sell or even gift any of my home grown meat, I do have to take it to a abbatoir, my place that does lamb, pig an beef is 40 min away, the place to do fowl is just over a hour away and almost three for rabbit. The costs for hauling, kill fee an cut and wrap have gone up massively over the past ten plus years.

Unless the animal is pre-marked for a farmgate sale, it is home kill and butcher for our own use.

I do all my own butchering and processing, hubby helps only if he must on very limited things if I must have the help.

J > You are a wonderwoman! The rules here are pretty similar, by the looks of it. Our abattoir is about 45m away – an hour’s drive. Two trips, 2 weeks apart, it adds up to a lot of money. But we aim to sell 80% of hogget lamb direct to tourists, 10% to locals, and rest is for us, so financially for us it works to take it to the abattoir.

that’s a nice split for marketing, do you only sell hogget lamb? no spring lamb? and if I can ask, what is the going price per pound for lamb? Locally the price right now is 10 per pound for lamb whole or half.

D > Yes, only hoggets – all killed at 17-18m old in October. Selling spring lamb would not be practicable here because it is the second summer that really puts on the weight and matures the flavour. We don’t sell whole/halves, we sell joints and cuts (on bone) individually. Top price is loin chops at £24 per kg (£10 per lb), with half leg at £20/kg, neck at £8/kg. I’ve recently seen others selling Whole/Half lamb (as a box of joints/cuts) sold direct to consumers at £140 for a minimum 15kg whole lamb, slightly more expensive for the half. We get significantly better return by selling individually, but we have the right circumstances to do that, and of course it is additional work. Funnily enough, that’s what you have to do to earn money – work! Seems prices here are similar to yours.

Thank you for the overview, I agree with you so much on the hoggets, I love them an that is what I raise for our own personal use most of the time, but my customers (unless from Europe) only want the young 8 to 10 month lambs and they think anything over 12 months of age is mutton.. its a steep learning curve but here, everyone wants mild flavour to their meats. The more natural raised and more favored meats are considered “gamey” and you have to teach folks how to use the different cuts.. And yes.. it does take work.. congrats on developing a over lapping markets for your farm.. never having all your eggs in one basket is a good thing 🙂

Farmgals Bucket List : Farmgal's Bucket List

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